When a piece of phonology becomes a piece of syntax

Abstract

This work argues against the view that phonological factors play a role in the distribution of vocalic auxiliary subject clitics (vocalic auxiliary scls), namely, those scls which occur with auxiliary verbs beginning in a vowel. Evidence is given to support the view that such scls are purely syntactic entities, whose distribution is governed only by syntactic factors. The analysis leads to a re-casting of vocalic auxiliary scls as “be-scls,” where the phonological structure of the auxiliary becomes irrelevant. Removing the phonological component from the explanation of the behavior of these syntactic elements further allows us to make fruitful connections with many other syntactic phenomena which would not otherwise have been seen.